Beijing's Attempt to Control Two Elections

An editorial cartoon about electoral fraud in Liaoning's NPC

An interesting story from China is the 45 Liaoning deputies from the National People's Congress sacked last month -- and now it's been revealed it's because the provincial legislature rejected Beijing-backed candidates in an election three years ago.

Sources say top Communist Party leaders were enraged when unprecedented, widespread vote rigging in the Liaoning Provincial People's Congress in 2013 saw candidates favoured by the Party leadership failed to win the election.

The NPC Standing Committee infuriated by Liaoning results

The scale of the scandal alarmed Beijing -- where the Party's preferred candidates lost out to ones backed by bribe-paying business chiefs. If it was not dealt with, the leadership says, then it would have threatened to undermine President Xi Jinping's plan for the Party's national congress next year, where a major reshuffle of senior positions is expected.

"A few candidates designated by the central authorities as deputies to the National People's Congress failed to get enough votes from Liaoning provincial legislators in early 2013," says a former Liaoning congress deputy.

The incident has infuriated top Party officials and resulted in an investigation into electoral fraud in the northeastern province.

Zhang says election fraud challenged China's political system

NPC chairman Zhang Dejiang, who is also a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, told a special meeting of the NPC Standing Committee last month the election fraud had "challenged China's socialist democratic politics" and touched the "bottom line" of the country's political system.

This scandal is not the first of its kind, though the first time since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 that dozens of NPC deputies have been sacked for election irregularities.

A mid-ranking official in the provincial capital of Shenyang said billionaires in Liaoning had been more than willing to spend big to secure NPC positions, which would then make it more difficult to launch investigations into their affairs and would gain them direct access to officials who could further their business interests.

Looks like it's game over for these billionaires...

It isn't clear how many candidates contested the 2013 NPC election or how many failed to win election, but apparently 3,000 deputies in the NPC were elected either by provincial-level people's congresses, or the People's Liberation Army, rather than by central authorities.

So think about it -- the province is corrupt with billionaires buying seats in the NPC, and even Beijing's efforts to control it by trying to elect its own endorsed people in is thwarted big time.

The solution? Beijing declares electoral fraud, when the Party itself is trying to have its own people voted in by its "socialist democracy".

It's very similar to Hong Kong's recent Legislative Council elections, but in this case, there was no electoral fraud, and while the pro-Beijing camp still has the majority in Legco, it lost three seats to localists, some of whom are advocating self-determination.

While it won't be hard for Beijing to rectify the problem in Liaoning by basically sacking everyone and starting over (by putting its own people in), Hong Kong is an entirely different kettle of fish.

Beijing must be racking its brains on how it can further exert its influence in the city. Stay tuned.

HK Govt Needs to Walk This Way

Hong Kong is walkable to a degree and then it gets frustrating and dangerous

It's odd that transport minister Anthony Cheung Bing-leung says if Hong Kong people want a more walkable city then they should walk more.

Shouldn't the government take the lead? How can we walk more if there are impediments in the way or paths that are not developed yet?

He said this during the Walk21 Conference hosted by think tank Civic Exchange. While he acknowledged some people are keen on more walking and cycling for a health lifestyle, he noted there were others "less ready to change their commuting habits and patterns".

During Occupy pedestrians enjoyed walking along freeways

Cheung said there were many cases where communities were opposed to the re-routing or frequency of a bus network that would result in commuters having to walk an extra 10 or 15 minutes.

There is also the ongoing issue of car owners wanting to have more car parks in all 18 districts in the city.

"For many people, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. We need actionable change and even a paradigm shift on how our city life is to be organized," he said.

"Are we willing to endure more congested trains and buses and to walk more so that we do not have to go for continuous expansion of the infrastructure? Tough questions and a tough trade-off indeed."

Part of the problem is that some offices are too far away to walk. In my case walking or taking the bus from Kennedy Town to Taipo is completely unfeasible.

I think I am like most commuters, always taking public transport and walking wherever I can.

The red path is a nice walk from Central to Wan Chai

But the government should be making more public land more accessible, particularly the harbourfront for people to exercise and have leisurely walks. There also needs to be more safe areas for people to cycle other than the bike paths in the New Territories.

Currently one can walk from Wan Chai all the way to Sai Ying Pun where the Western wholesale market is, but then one has to do a major detour before getting back to the harbourfront again towards Kennedy Town. If that was one wide, safe, continuous path, more people would use it for sure, including myself.

And by the way has he seen what it's like in the MTR during rush hour? He really should experience it himself to understand people's frustrations of having to wait for several trains before they can squeeze on?

Don't get us wrong -- we appreciate the MTR, but is it ready for a greater onslaught of people once the south line opens?

What are the alternatives?

Sweet and Savoury Breakfast

Oh so good, but definitely calorific -- the signature duck and waffle dish

Duck and Waffle is a well-known restaurant in London -- for its views from the 40th floor of Heron Tower which make it the tallest dining spot in the city, and for its food -- indulgent dishes that are available 24 hours a day.

That's right. Any time of day.

It's been open for four years and its fame has spread to Hong Kong, where a number of foodies have made the pilgrimage to the restaurant and enjoyed the many dishes there including the signature duck and waffle.

It entails a buttermilk waffle as the base, a duck leg confit on top, followed by a fried sunny-side up duck egg. It comes with Canadian maple syrup (hurrah!), seasoned with spices and mustard seeds.

A dramatic skyline that brightened up later in the morning

The combination of savoury and sweet works so well, the tenderness of the duck contrasts with the crunchiness of the waffle that has that comfort food taste, combined with texture from the whole mustard seeds and of course the yolk oozing from the egg that binds everything together.

The dish is so popular in London  that the restaurant serves 300 to 400 plates of duck and waffle per day. That's a lot of duck legs...

Duck and Waffle just wrapped up a week-long residency today at Ozone in the Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong; it seemed appropriate that the restaurant be situated in the tallest one in the city.

The main crew were flown over here, including group executive chef Daniel Doherty and executive chef Tom Cenci, and Ozone, which usually has a Star Wars futuristic kind of vibe was different, with proper wooden tables and chairs set up and staff wearing Duck and Waffle T-shirts with dark jeans. They must have appreciated looking casual for the week.

Duck egg en cocotte with Gruyere cheese and truffle shavings

Their biggest logistical challenge was recreating the 24-hour service of the London one by having Ozone open from noon on Saturday all the way to Sunday until 5pm.

A few foodie friends and I were worried it would be very full in the evening so we thought we'd go early in the morning for breakfast. At first they suggested 7am which seemed to too early and then settled for an hour later.

I don't normally wake up that early, but this was something not to miss -- particularly since I don't think I'll be going to London anytime soon.

When we got to Ozone we were surprised to find hardly anyone was there, but then again 8am was quite early. It's also interesting to note that the bar and restaurant isn't usually open that early either -- the brunch usually starts at noon.

Dark clouds threatened to rain, but somehow they decided to disperse and we had blue skies to enjoy.

The service staff had just changed shifts, though some chefs had worked all night but were game to keep going for another few hours.

The gorgeous English cherries waffles with yoghurt ice cream

The menu for "brunch" was tempting and hard to decide what we wanted to eat, but in the end we ordered several items to try, some to share.

First up the bacon-wrapped dates (HK$45 each) were so good. Again the play on savoury and sweet was a perfect combination here -- if you didn't read the menu you wouldn't have known you were biting in to a large date, which wasn't saccharine sweet, just a bit, and quite filling.

I then had the duck egg en cocotte (HK$165), a mini cast iron frying pan with very meaty wild mushroom slices with creamy Gryuere cheese topped with tiny truffle shavings and of course the duck egg that wasn't completely baked through so some of the yolk oozed out. It was great with the slice of sourdough rye toast.

An intriguing dish was the duck congee (HK$195) that we thought was a new one for Hong Kong, but we were told it's always been on the menu. It features plain congee, quite thick in a shallow plate and decorated with shredded confit duck, julienne of ginger, crushed hazelnuts, pink pickled pearl onions, spring onions and hot sauce.

We were surprised to see gweilos had successfully elevated congee to a gourmet dish! The congee was very thick, not quite creamy, but almost there, and the dish was so colourful it made me wonder why the Chinese ones look so plain.

Other egg dishes we ordered were the shakshuka (HK$160), an exotic named dish featuring eggs again in the cast iron frying pan spiced up with harissa yoghurt and mint, and Columbian eggs (HK$1450, which was basically scrambled eggs with avocado, grilled chorizo on sourdough rye toast.

Of course we had the signature duck and waffle (HK$220), and it was as billed, sinfully delicious. We can't get over how the combination of these ingredients work so well together. Match made in heaven.

For dessert, we were enticed to try all three Belgian waffle creations. Banana brulee (HK$125) featured the waffle decorated with bananas that were sliced lengthwise and had sugar sprinkled on them to have a caramelized and crunchy surface, with homemade "nutella" and a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

The signature waffle is the "full Elvis" (HK$195), a decadent dessert the King would have approved of -- waffles with peanut butter, the aforementioned caramelized bananas, chantilly cream and crushed nuts, chocolate sprinkles. The only healthy parts were the decoration of strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries.

But in particular we all enjoyed the English cherries (HK$125), with the yoghurt ice cream topped white chocolate crumble and even yellow flower petals! Slightly tart and refreshing, a lighter option to finish the meal.

Some friends thought some of the dishes were even better than the ones they tasted in London. Quite the feat considering they are working in a tiny kitchen that is not too familiar and working overnight too.

We don't know when we'll get to Duck and Waffle in London, but when we do, we'll know what to order...

October 1 Unpatriotic Banners

A pro-independence sign hangs at Baptist University in Kowloon Tong

For many in Hong Kong, the October 1 National Day holiday is just another public holiday -- and this year it falls on a Saturday so many people took advantage of going out of town. We're so patriotic.

This contrasts with the Hong Kong government, that attends a flag-raising ceremony at the Golden Bauhinia sculpture next to the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. This morning there was some rain that marred the festivities.

Another banner at the University of Hong Kong...

However to mark the 67th anniversary of the establishment of the People's Republic of China, banners that read "Hong Kong Independence" in Chinese and English were hung up in eight universities around town. They included the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, the University of Science and Technology, Baptist University and City University.

Some of the tertiary institutions removed the banners.

The Hong Kong National Party, a pro-independence group, admitted to providing the banners to the students, but insisted it was the students who put them up themselves.

At Chinese University hangs a large pro-independence banner

A few days ago the party had a message on its Facebook page, telling students not to celebrate National Day and called China a "colonial master" of Hong Kong.

Were any caught putting up the banners? Will they be punished? Or will their actions fall under freedom of speech?

The pro-independence movement, despite being scoffed at for being completely unrealistic and illegal, seems to be growing in popularity. Young people are becoming more radical in their outlook in their hopes to have the Hong Kong they want.

Not exactly what the Communist Party had in mind...